Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic for $60 now

Think it's worth it? The only thing different between this and two of the other X-Fi is that this one does not have the panel and the "X-Ram" which I have no idea what kind of a quality difference that makes.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

I haven't seen it for less anywhere else.

Good deal.. out of stock though..

Shame I would have picked up 2 to replace some Audigy 2's I still have.

Ordered yesterday. So I guess I got the last one. :p

CompUSA had this for the same price last week (after a $30 rebate). I snagged one of those to replace my Audigy 2.

Received. Installed. Enjoying.

Looks like the cards are back in stock, if anyone wants to get one.

What's the school of thought on these? Better than onboard sound? Less resource intensive? i've not used an add-in soundcard since my AWE64 days.

Tyrian wrote:

Looks like the cards are back in stock, if anyone wants to get one.

What's the school of thought on these? Better than onboard sound? Less resource intensive? i've not used an add-in soundcard since my AWE64 days.

Way better than onboard sound.. light years.. Creative drivers are "better" in that these days at least you can just installed the bare driver.. none of the extra crap

If you already have a audigy 2 like me- what is the benefit of upgrading?
-Xino

I'll use it to replace my onboard audio (nforce2, asus board with the soundstorm crap).

Sounds good to me!

[edit]
er, no pun intended.

I too still have a Audigy 2. Is it worth upgrading to the X-Fi at all? If so are the models with the 64 MB of ram worth it over those that don't?

Edwin wrote:

I too still have a Audigy 2. Is it worth upgrading to the X-Fi at all? If so are the models with the 64 MB of ram worth it over those that don't?

As far as the ram, I would say totally not worth the cost. I'm not positive, but I don't think there's a game yet that takes advantage of that? Could be totally off-base there.

Edwin wrote:

I too still have a Audigy 2. Is it worth upgrading to the X-Fi at all? If so are the models with the 64 MB of ram worth it over those that don't?

I agree w/ Thin_J about that. Unless the game was developed to load audio into the X-ram, i don't believe it really nets you much benefit at all. I think Quake4 and Unreal Tournament 2004 have some support for the card.

The biggest difference between the Audigy line and the new X-Fis (aside from the X-Ram stuff) seems to be the number of concurrent voices (128 vs 64 on the older audigys).

Edwin wrote:

If so are the models with the 64 MB of ram worth it over those that don't?

Thin_J speaks the truth. Don't pay Fatal1ty to play Quake 4!

Thin_J wrote:

I'm not positive, but I don't think there's a game yet that takes advantage of that?

AFAIK Battlefield 2 is the only game that offers a specific option for X-Fi high quality audio. Unfortunately I haven't heard it myself, so I've got no idea if it makes a dramatic difference or not. The few write-ups that I've read lean towards the positive, but it's more gushing about X-Fi in general than X-RAM specifically.

Quake 4 has support for EAX5 (only available to X-Fi so far), but not X-RAM. Unreal Tournament 2004 does have support for OpenAL, but I don't know if there are any hooks in there to make extensive use of the X-Fi. My general impression is that Unreal Tournament 2004's "EAX + Hardware" provides the same effects on Audigy, Audigy 2 and X-Fi.

Prey has OpenAL but it was over so fast that it doesn't even matter.

Agreed with all the above points. I have not owned an add-on card since my Audigy1 (driver debacle and the A2 soured me), instead having relied on onboard sound since then. I am really enjoying this card. The card seems to realy help ambience and localization in games such as BF2 and Titan Quest probably due to the increase of simultaneous voices. The X-RAM seems to be more of a marketing gimmick at this time as the few reviews I have read show little or no improvement in games using it (BF2, Q4, etc). Given the price premium, I would say stick with the low end version unless you are are an audiophile and need all the extra bells and whistles. Regardless I give it a thumbs up.

The last standalone sound card I had was a SoundBlaster Live! Platinum, about five or six years ago. I've been with onboard sound for ages, just because I don't have a nice set of speakers. I keep hearing about increased framerates and smoothness and whatnot with games; I assume that's because the mobo doesn't have to work as hard to render sound? I'm looking at a total system makeover in the near future and wondering if adding a sound card is in my best interest.

I bought X-Fi Extreme Music in February and it set me back almost US$200 in my currency. And now look at this... Dang.

Buy.com has the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card Retail for $112 - $30 rebate [Exp 7/31] = $82 with free shipping. "With the X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity 24-bit Crystalizer, MP3 music and movies are converted to Xtreme Fidelity, which delivers an experience beyond the original CD or DVD recordings."

http://bensbargains.net/deal/1379/

el_dino wrote:

I bought X-Fi Extreme Music in February and it set me back almost US$200 in my currency. And now look at this... Dang.

*edited*

I didn't realize you were foreign. That price sucks.

$22 drop. ZipZoomFly.com has the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card Retail for $100 - $40 rebate [Exp 8/8] = $60 with free shipping. "With the X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity 24-bit Crystalizer, MP3 music and movies are converted to Xtreme Fidelity, which delivers an experience beyond the original CD or DVD recordings."

God I wish I could find deals like this up here in Canada.

I could always order one for you and ship it up. Wouldn't be the first time I help a random friend on the boards/stranger in real life.

I appreciate the offer Edwin but than we would need to add shipping costs and the conversion from american to canadian on the purchase and the shipping would end up meaning minimal savings and big hassle. Not really worth it.